The poor

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Heinrich Mann in 1906

The poor is a novel by Heinrich Mann . The text was conceived in Upper Bavaria in the summer of 1916 , written in Munich until April 1917 and published in August of the same year.

The novel is set in 1913 and 1914 up to the beginning of the First World War . Diederich Heßling , a major industrialist in Gausenfeld, exploits the workers in his paper factory. The young worker Karl Balrich holds - in his opinion - proof in his hand that he is the owner of part of Hessling's fortune. Balrich wants to create his own rights by going to court as a lawyer against Hessling later in order to at least partially expropriate him. In a first step, Balrich is preparing for the Abitur in order to study law. Balrich does not become a lawyer, but goes into the field as one of the first German workers with flying colors against France.

The poor

The poor
( Vincent van Gogh 1880:
The Potato Eaters)

Those workers who are "enslaved" in Hessling's factory and, of course, their numerous relatives, are the poor. The workers see the 20-year-old Karl Balrich as their "leader" they hope for. Balrich, however, does not act like such a person at all, but like an ordinary egoist who absolutely wants “property and power”: The workers in Gausenfeld live “locked up like cattle”. Balrich wants to move out of "Workers House B, Room 101" and into Villa Höhe, Hessling's residence. To do this, Balrich must first expropriate the manufacturer with the help of the above-mentioned letter that he received from Great Uncle Gellert. Balrich pursues this ambitious goal throughout the novel. He wants to beat Hessling with the arms of the rich - wants to study their law. In a first step, he studies Latin, one of the prerequisites for studying law . Balrich's younger sister Leni has enough common sense to recognize the hopelessness of the brother's grotesque educational efforts right from the start. In their view, the brother cannot become a lawyer six years ago. Practical as she is, she approaches Horst, one of the Hessling sons. At least Leni achieved partial success in this easier way. In the novel, the reader actually only experiences an agreed-upon action by the workers. When Balrich was put out of action in the “madhouse” at Hessling's instigation, the workers threatened a strike and immediately forced Balrich to be released.

Otherwise, Heinrich Mann describes Balrich's hopeless, lonely struggle against an overpowering opponent. Balrich receives a good suit from his wealthy patrons so that he can meet Leni in the theater. However, Balrich has to recognize that the world of the rich will remain alien to him. And Leni - Horst Heßling "had it" and left it - has miscalculated.

Balrich has to let himself be told by the workers that by having studied a little, he no longer thinks in a proletarian way.

The rich

The rich are the chemist General Director Secret Commerce Councilor Dr. Diederich Heßling, his clan and his companions.

When Balrich makes a thoughtless remark, Hessling declares him "crazy". Balrich ends up in the madhouse. The young doctor there approaches the new patient sensibly, humanely and almost like a friend. When Balrich is dismissed the next day - under pressure from the workers - he has to soberly state that the young doctor's nobility was a play. The rich are in cahoots.

Attorney Buck and school teacher Professor Klinkorum enable Balrichs to take the first steps on the rocky road to high school. Klinkorum's property is surrounded by three huge workers' houses A, B and C. Although the frustrated professor considers the worker Balrich to be a “clumsy head”, he still teaches him out of unconscious anger at Hessling. Later, when Hessling dismissed all the Balrichs and threw them out of the workers' house, the Klinkorum even took Balrich and his extended proletarian family into its walls.

Buck's wife, Emmi, is Hessling's sister. Hessling had ruined Buck's father earlier. That is why Emmi admires her husband, how this Balrich makes it possible to learn the Latin language and thus terrifies Hessling. For General Director Heßling the action of his brother-in-law Buck is no joke, but nothing less than "insidious promotion of subversive tendencies". The Bucks live next door to the Hesslings at Villa Höhe.

The 16-year-old Hans Buck, "the little boy", son of the Buck couple, lends Balrich his school books and loves Leni Balrich dearly. Although Horst Heßling has long won the race with Leni, Hans, who is mad about Leni, does not give up. It is also Hans who overhears a conversation between Diederich Hessling and his son Horst at the Villa Höhe, in which the Hesslings threaten to set fire to the Klinkorums house, the Balrichs' refuge. When the house is really in ruins, lawyer Buck uses this knowledge to put pressure on his brother-in-law: Arsonists can end up in prison. But it doesn't get that far. Balrich gives up and becomes a soldier.

The deputy and the general

Comrade Napoleon Fischer, a member of the Reichstag , who in Balrich's eyes is a traitor, negotiates alternately with Hessling and the social-democratic workers. Fischer tries to prevent the workers' strike. Fischer has shares in Gausenfeld. With both the rich and the poor, the Reichstag deputy, mindful of his own interests, makes himself dear child.

Your Excellency General von Popp goes in and out of the Villa Höhe. When the Klinkorum's house was in flames, the military moved out of the barracks. Hessling was one of the war profiteers from the start .

The empire

"The poor" is the second part of a three-part series of works by Heinrich Mann, entitled

“The Empire. The novels of German society in the age of Wilhelm II. "

  • Part 1: “ The subject . Roman des bourgeoisie ”, written between 1912 and 1914, published in December 1918.
  • Part 2: “The poor. The proletarian's novel ”.
  • Part 3: “ The head . Roman der Führer ”, written 1917 to 1925, published in 1925.

tragicomedy

The novel can be read as a tragic-comedy , as Heinrich Mann's text has brought both the tragic and the comic in part hard against one another.

  • Tragic: A house is set on fire in Gausenfeld. Then the military marches . At the end of the day, Hessling began producing ammunition. Some of his workers go to war.
  • Funny: As a comedy z. B. the efforts of General Director Hessling to get hold of the compromising letter. After all, he offers Balrich “a hundred thousand”.

vocabulary

The vocabulary that Heinrich Mann uses suggests the content of the novel: capitalist , exploiter , proletariat , international revolutionary social democracy, the aged party, classmates , the bourgeoisie , lockouts , wage slavery , strikebreakers .

reception

  • In a letter to Kurt Wolff on September 19, 1917, Hermann Hesse regrets that Heinrich Mann “simplifies things like a comedy poet”.
  • Arthur Schnitzler wrote to Heinrich Mann in 1917: "The realities that you bring ... sometimes seem to me to be distorted into a caricatural style ... without the inner law making sense to me everywhere ...".
  • Rudolf Leonhard wrote in 1917: "For future historians, this novel ... is the safest document of an era that will be called Wilhelmine for Germany ".
  • In 1918, Ludwig Rubiner described the work as "terrible master trash".
  • The book was not the intended realistic proletarian novel.
  • Kiesel lists three novels (see above subsection Das Kaiserreich ) in which Heinrich Mann criticizes Wilhelmine Germany - The Subject , The Poor and The Head - and asks about the relative unsuccessfulness of the last two compared to the first. The answer: The head hardly offers anything essentially new to the subject from the environment of the manufacturer Dieterich Heßling. And in 1925, the year the head was published , the reader's gaze is already hopefully directed towards the future. In 1925 a "reconciliation between monarchists and republicans" was hoped.

literature

  • Heinrich Mann: The poor , German EA 1917, Kurt Wolff Verlag Leipzig, cover Käthe Kollwitz.
  • Heinrich Mann: The poor. Novel. Volume 8: Heinrich Mann: Collected Works. Pp. 5-163. Berlin / Weimar 1987, ISBN 3-351-00423-0
  • Heinrich Mann: The poor. Novel. 320 pages. Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-596-12432-8

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michels, p. 420
  2. ↑ Schröter, p. 90
  3. ↑ Anger, p. 143
  4. ↑ Anger, p. 144
  5. ↑ Koopmann, p. 39
  6. ↑ Kiesel, pp. 1145-1147